I had posted my Halloween costume on the Halloween Costume Challenge page, and had a few questions about my outfit. This is my 1st tutorial, so I hope I follow proper etiquette. I am a visual person, so I have TONS of photos. Sadly I underestimated my own creative awesomeness until about 1/3 of the way into the project, but you guys really don't need photos of me hitting up the thrift stores. My costume did not take long to make. An experienced crafter or sewer could have cut hours off of the project time. I can't even sew a straight, straight stitch, so I learned a few things in the making of this project. Fun.....

I found a white lab coat (nurse costume) and a set of XL scrubs (mental patient costume) at the thrift store. Excellent find for only $1 for each item.

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Next, I painted a red cross on the side of my coat. While I had the paint out, I also stenciled "Bryce State Mental Hospital" to the back of Hubs costume, and "Patient #666" to the front. Trying to keep some historical accuracy, Bryce was the largest mental institution in Alabama at the height of Mental Asylum Institutionalization.

This photo was taken after I added the fake blood splatter, later in the project.

I made my own red cross pattern. No significance for using cork, it was just what I had on hand. I taped off the pattern on my coat, and painted.

The biggest challenge with this project was the nurse hat. I wanted to have some historical accuracy to my costume, and being a craftster, I couldn't bring myself to buy the cheesy, over done, nurse hat at the Halloween store. It was also far cheaper to make my own. This hat cost me approximately only $3 to make. Much cheaper than a purchased one and far better looking. This was my 1st attempt to ever use interfacing, or to hem in a curve. I had never made a pattern before either....so going into this, I knew JUST ENOUGH to get myself in trouble. I started off with a tee tiny paper nurse hat for a teddy bear. From that, I loosely drew out and scaled up a size. Folded the scaled up pattern and made some measurements to see why it was so ugly. After seeing what was wrong with the scaled up pattern, I then took those measurements and ratios, and scaled up my pattern a 2nd time. From the second enlargement, I then traced out my pattern allowing for seam allowances (not pictured). I ironed my hems down, along with the interfacing, and finished it up. I have little sewing experience, so I have no clue HOW I knew to do any of this, I am claiming divine intervention. I really know nothing about sewing, pattern making, or any of that stuff. It just....came to me....I don't know. After the nurse hat was completed, I traced off and painted a red cross, similar to my coat.

Before all the blood....so white and pretty, almost too nice to get all bloody.

The second most difficult part of this costume was the syringe prosthetic. This was also the most expensive item to make. I poured out some liquid latex on wax paper, and proped up the syringe so that the tip of the syringe was in the liquid latex. I allowed it to dry, then added some additional coats of latex around the syringe tip for added support. The syringe was sitting at an approximate 70ish degree angle to the latex. I just used whatever junk I had laying around to support the syringe until the latex dried. The white piece was actually a piece of foam plate. My idea was to paint this like an eye, so my eye appeared to be drooping. It didn't work outt. I work in a Chemistry Lab so the syringe was one of a million we have at our disposal.Once the tip of the syringe was covered in latex, I could no longer put the plunger back in. I wanted the syringe to have the appearance of an injectable medication, but the ONLY food coloring I had at home was red. I really wanted a bright lime green. To get the plunger and the liquid in the syringe, I took a hot needle, and pierced the lower back of the syringe. After adding my liquid, and pushing the plunger to my desired height, I placed a small piece of packing tap over the needle hole. I used food coloring instead of fake blood because I didn't know the chemical com patability of latex to propylene glycol.

The knife in my chest was real. I purchased a set of wood handled steak knives from the thrift store for about $3. Hubby cut one of the knives in half, dulled all of the metal edges, and welded the knife at a 90 degree angle. We then made a sheath out of cardboard and some elastic, and the knife literally sat in my chest, in the sheath. I wanted it easily removed from the sheath for safety. Not real excited about traveling in the car with a knife in my chest that I couldn't remove from a knife sheath.

Hubby's accessories were a cheap $4 hockey mask, cut and painted to resemble a restraint mask. The real deal at the Halloween store was insanely expensive. The wrist restraints were 2, thrift store leather belts (at $2 each) and some lenght of chain purchased at the home improvement store, attached with some large D rings. The real chain was heavy, but hubs is a big man, he can take it.

All costumes were coated in a nice spray of fake blood. Getting ready took a while. I first did my makeup, outlining where the prosthetic was going to be; then I did my hair. I wanted to do all this with 2 good eyes. I curled my hair, and then pinned it up in a 40's style, and pinned in my hat. I applied my prosthetic with sport gum. Since it was top heavy, the sport gum was not holding, so I literally used masking tape to tape the top part of the prosthetic to my face.

Next I used the toilet tissue, liquid latex method to blend the prosthetic into my skin, and to give the appearance of hanging, folded, bloody skin.

I then added some fake blood, a little bit of "clown red" to the prosthetic, and using my fingertips and some purple, blue, and yellow eyeshadow, I created my bruising. The bruising looked better in person. The sheen of the eyeshadow was not present in real life, only in the photos. I also attached my cardboard knife sheath. Please excuse my dirty home......I was too busy crafting!

Thank you very much. The scary sexy look is very startling to people. They are not sure if they want to look at you, nor do they know what to say. It confuses people. I did have one guy tell me my syringe was "hot", while most people said "oh my GOD". I take that as a compliment. Lol. I had a lot of fun running up to people on the street.